Ditch the Clichés from your CV

Your CV is costing you job opportunities.

You’re not standing out.

In fact you’re putting people off.

It’s time you made a change.

It’s time you ditch the clichés from your cv.

“Great team player”

Change and replace with an example instead, such as “I worked extensively with our international and local teams to complete a ￡500,000 project on time and on budget” This will demonstrate that you’re a team player, without you having to use this overused phrase.

“Work well independently”

Will this really set you apart from other applications?  This is hopefully a given. If you want to put it in your cv how about saying I independently did X and it increased profit by X – add the evidence.

“A hard worker”

This is very subjective. What do you mean by this? Are you the first to arrive and last to leave? Are you an efficiency magician, able to complete all your tasks in 4 hours a day?

If you can somehow articulate this into real life examples then great, but we all have different thoughts on what a ‘hard worker’ is.

“Results driven”

This is a bold statement and one that certainly needs backing up. Answer the questions What did you do? What did you achieve? How much? How long? If you can’t quantify any results then you are not results driven.

“Good communication skills”

Wow, I hope so. Once again provide specific examples i.e. Through presentations or sales pitches I generated X amount of new business/clients as a direct result.

Other’s you may have seen or even used in your cv are:

“Highly motivated”

“Strong attention to detail”

“Fast learner”

“Creative thinker”

“I’m Dynamic”

 “I’m passionate about”

The list goes on. What else do you think has become overused in CV’s ?